Tag: Alan Grayson

Our democracy may be farce, our citizens may be entranced by electronic hallucinations and our ecosystem may be collapsing, but the longtime gadfly, armed with his 50-year-old typewriter, will not give up.

Every week the Truthdig editorial staff selects a Truthdigger of the Week, a group or person worthy of recognition for speaking truth to power, breaking the story or blowing the whistle. Here are 10 Truthdiggers from 2014 we think are worth reflecting upon at the end of the year.

Late in May, the House of Representatives approved an amendment to an appropriations bill that would bar the Justice Department from compelling reporters to reveal the identities of and other information about their confidential sources. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Alan Grayson (pictured).

An amendment adopted by a House committee would, if enacted, take a step toward removing the National Security Agency from the business of meddling with encryption standards that protect security on the Internet.

An inquiry by Florida Congressman Alan Grayson compelled Attorney General Eric Holder to state that “any journalist who’s engaged in true journalistic activities is not going to be prosecuted by [the U.S.] Justice Department.” But as civil liberties journalist Glenn Greenwald points out, the assertion is riddled with caveats.

In the wake of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s voting 10 to 7 to authorize strikes on Syria, Florida Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson told “Democracy Now!” on Thursday: “I am very disturbed by this general idea that every time we see something bad in the world, we should bomb it. … The president has criticized that mindset, and now he has adopted it. It’s simply not our responsibility to act alone and punish this.”

The weapon manufacturer’s stock surged roughly 10 percent while American war drums for Syria crescendoed over the past two months. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., recognizes the jump as an unambiguous reminder that profit is a cause for the war President Obama seems prepared to make. “Nobody wants this except the military-industrial complex,” he said on a radio show Thursday.

Giant bank holding companies now own airports, toll roads, and ports; control power plants; and store and hoard vast quantities of commodities of all sorts. They are systematically buying up or gaining control of the essential lifelines of the economy. How did they pull this off, and where did they get the money?

Forces within the government have repeatedly thwarted attempts by members of Congress to learn basic information about the National Security Agency and the secret court that authorizes its activities, documents provided by two House members show.

The Guardian columnist, who broke the story about the extent of the National Security Agency’s surveillance program, is among a handful of NSA critics who have been invited to give testimony before Congress to counter the “constant misleading information” from intelligence officials, Rep. Alan Grayson said.

In early June, Florida Congressman Alan Grayson tacked a “corporate death penalty” provision onto two House-approved federal spending bills that would withhold government funds from contractors who break the law.

Aaron Swartz, the Internet freedom advocate who committed suicide in mid-January, was an intern in Florida Congressman Alan Grayson’s office after the onset of the economic crisis. Grayson recently paid tribute to Swartz at a memorial service in Washington, D.C.

He spent only two years in Congress before losing the gig in 2010, and just like that you can drop the “former” from Rep. Alan Grayson’s title. The good people of Orlando, Fla., are sending the sharp-tongued liberal fireball back to work in the Capitol.

It’s been available for almost six months now: the first independent audit of the Federal Reserve. In case you haven’t read it top-to-bottom, former Congressman Alan Grayson, who petitioned the study along with Rep. Ron Paul, wants to draw your attention to some of his favorite parts.

This week on Truthdig Radio in collaboration with KPFK: Alan Grayson tells us why he’s running again for Congress; wild-man cartoonist Mr. Fish discusses his new book; a couple of holy men talk about biblical ignorance; and Truthdig editor-in-chief Robert Scheer talks about President Obama’s rejection of Elizabeth Warren. Update: Full transcript.

This week on Truthdig Radio in collaboration with KPFK: Alan Grayson tells us why he’s running again for Congress; wild-man cartoonist Mr. Fish discusses his new book; a couple of holy men talk about biblical ignorance; and Truthdig editor-in-chief Robert Scheer talks about President Obama’s rejection of Elizabeth Warren.

Every progressive’s favorite loudmouth is running to reclaim his seat in the House of Representatives, where he wants to fight Democratic “appeasement” of Republicans. Alan Grayson told Talking Points Memo, “It’s exactly like I said, the Republican health care plan: Don’t get sick. ... The Republican unemployment plan ... (more)

The tea party movement took a hit and made a big score, respectively, in the defeat of Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and Marco Rubio’s Senate victory in Florida over Gov. Charlie Crist.

Florida’s Rep. Alan Grayson, the freshman congressman from the substantially conservative Orlando area, has already managed to make a name for himself over the course of his first two years in office by ... (continued)

The partisan nonsense meter hit a high Thursday following a protracted bout of bickering in the House that heated up after Florida Rep. Alan Grayson made his views about his Republican colleagues eminently clear, but he’s not sorry, and he’s not apologizing—at least not yet. This does not please said colleagues, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t in a hurry to appease them either.

Rep. Alan Grayson, the congressman who said the Republican health care plan is for Americans to die quicker, tells Wolf Blitzer and friends what’s up: “Democrats have to have guts. And now we have to have the guts to take the majority that the American people have given us and do something with it.”